That may be difficult to accept as his school, Frankley Community High, finds itself at risk of possible Government intervention, or even closure, after falling foul of National Challenge targets.

But as the Frankley head teacher points out: “It’s unfortunate the only area we don’t succeed at is the key measure the Government uses.”

That ‘key measure’ is the proportion of pupils achieving five or more A*-Cs at GCSE when English and maths are included.

Frankley Community High’s figure currently stands at just 11 per cent, compared to the Birmingham average of 45.5 per cent. But, more importantly, the Government has set a target of 30 per cent which must be achieved by 2011, or else.

Mr Wilding said: “One thing we have done here is kept hold of our kids till the end of Year 11.

“Five years ago a lot of our kids would have drifted out of education. Now we are holding onto them. But, in terms of the five A* to Cs including English and maths, that damages us.

“I would argue our pupils are still achieving good qualifications, either GCSE or vocational. It’s all about horses for courses, whereas English and maths only focuses on one narrow range.

“Unfortunately for our point of view, the government’s key measure is this 30 per cent five or more A* to C including English and maths, and that makes us appear to be unsuccessful.”

Mr Wilding is all too aware of the dangers of National Challenge.

“The disaster part of National Challenge is you are labelled a failing school. We have got three years to achieve 30 per cent so it definitely puts pressure on us.

“It’s potentially going to be difficult for us because our kids perform very well anyway.

“It is not about quality of learning. The kids are motivated and working hard. It would be easier to achieve this target if our contextual value added was low because there would be far more scope for improvement.

“Academy, trust or federation status are all options facing National Challenge schools.

“Closure is also an option, but that’s not something we want to contemplate and, with a very good contextual value added, we think we are in a very strong position not to close.

“I believe we can get this target.”

Mr Wilding said on the day the national GCSE league tables came out, two lists were published – the worst schools in the country and the best schools in the country – and they were in both.

“One of the tables was for contextual value added, and we have been in the top four or five Birmingham schools for the last four years and the top four per cent of schools nationally.”

While straightforward value-added shows the progress pupils make during their time in school, contextual means comparisons are made using outside factors such as local economic disadvantage and the number of pupils on free school meals.

Mr Wilding, who is in his fifth year as head of Frankley Community High, added: “We do incredibly well in all our other measures and achieve some absolutely fantastic results.

“In terms of five A*-Cs we have done consistently well with over 50 per cent for the last six years. But they now say it has to be with English and maths.

“We had one child who had spent almost their entire education at James Brindley Hospital School, but we went out to him and he got his GCSE English. And for the second year on the trot we got 100 per cent of pupils leaving with something.

“If I can get a kid from an E grade to D, that’s as much of an achievement as getting a C, but that doesn’t count for this target.”